Science is increasingly interdisciplinary, as evidenced by the rise of fields such as systems biology and cognitive neuroscience.  Given this trend in scientific practice, many scientific successes going forward are likely to emerge from research groups comprised of members from multiple fields and disciplines, who effectively combine their diverse modes of expertise.  Some of these successes, one hopes, will be explanations (explanatory models). This talk outlines a view of explanation tailored to interdisciplinary contexts, identifying key features of these explanatory models.  Such a view is needed, I argue, because in such contexts adherence to one or another established theory of scientific explanation can impede interdisciplinary collaborations.  A view of explanation that instead facilitates interdisciplinary inquiry, I propose, allows for conceptual change, unifies multiple perspectives, and aims at the epistemic virtue of comprehensiveness.
 

RECEPTION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING IN 817 CATHEDRAL OF LEARNING